While the Food Guide Pyramid promotes the consumption of meat in moderation, meat is still the base food in most families' diets. It is one of our best sources of iron and zinc, and is rich in protein, B vitamins, magnesium, and phosphorus. The Food Guide Pyramid promotes the consumption of no more than five to seven ounces of cooked meat per day. As important as the total amount of meat consumed, however, is the amount of fat that accompanies the meat selected.
Poultry is an excellent source of protein, and is much lower in fat than beef. While four ounces of lean beef contains 18 grams of fat, a four-ounce portion of skinless, turkey breast contains less than 2 grams fat. Even the fattier dark meat of duck has less than 13 grams fat per four-ounce portion when the skin is removed. Both chicken and turkey are main dish staples of which many people have increased their consumption due to their high-protein, low-fat nutritional value. Advances in processing technologies have further encouraged consumption of poultry products in producing new products such as hot dogs, cold cuts, and bacon made from these meats.
While poultry dark meat, i.e. thighs, legs, and wings, has been prized in many parts of the world, studies show that Americans generally prefer the white meat, i.e. breast meat. In this country, turkeys and chickens are bred to include a larger percentage of white meat. In addition to being preferred for taste, white meat has less fat and fewer calories than dark meat and skin. This holds true for all types of poultry that have both white and dark meat, including turkey, chicken and Cornish hens. Below are comparative charts of poultry products and their calories and fat profiles. All portion sizes are 3½ ounces, uncooked.
CaloriesFat (grams)TurkeyBreast without skin1351Breast with skin1533Leg without skin1594Leg with skin1705Wing without skin1633Wing with skin20710Ground1237ChickenBreast without skin1654Breast with skin1978Leg without skin1918Leg with skin23213Wing without skin2038Wing with skin29020Ground1767Cornish HensWhite meat19018Dark meat24522
In several instances, even when the skin is left on the meat, the white meat tends to have the same or less fat and calories than the dark meat with the skin removed.
As shown, based on consumers' preference for white meat, and due to the nutritional and health benefits associated with white meat, it would be advantageous to determine a means for breeding and/or raising poultry to increase the average live weight. It would be even more advantageous to determine a means for breeding and/or raising poultry having a high white meat yield at the expense of dark meat yield.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a composition and method for increasing the live weight of poultry using a product based on animal plasma.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a composition and method for increasing the white meat yield in poultry at the expense of the dark meat yield using a product based on animal plasma.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a composition and method for treating animals which increases growth and weight gain.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a composition and method for increasing the live weight of poultry which is convenient and economical to administer.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a composition and method for increasing the live weight of poultry which is easy and economical to manufacture.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives as well as others will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows hereafter.